25 Small Sustainable House Plans provides a fascinating selection of innovative house plans, along with an overview of the most efficient natural building methods – strawbale, earthbag and sustainably harvested wood. Go beyond the basics and learn how to use free or low-cost natural building materials to build your dream home free of debt, with the least amount of time and labor. Get the lowdown on the best natural building methods — what really works and why.
In this book:
* 25 low-cost, DIY, sustainable house designs, many of which can be built for less than $10,000
* 118 drawings of low cost, alternative building ideas
* Roundhouses, domes, hexagonal, pavilion style, organic and rectilinear designs
* Designs can be combined to create unique custom homes
* Earth-bermed, earth-sheltered, passive solar and superinsulated house designs
* Complete plans and specifications available for purchase as PDF downloads
* Zero-energy houses and energy-efficient construction
* Overview of the most efficient thick-wall natural building methods
* Earthbag and strawbale greenhouses
* Cool pantries and why every house should have one
* Free 85-page Earthbag Building Guide with each house plan order
This book is for all those who want affordable housing, to save energy and/or live off-grid, build small and lessen their environmental impact. This book provides detailed house plans that are suitable for a wide range of climates using the most efficient natural building methods and materials such as strawbale, earthbag building and sustainably harvested wood. In addition to innovative house plans, there are photos, detail drawings and expert advice on what works best, in a price range affordable to almost everyone.
By Owen Geiger – author of Earthbag Building Guide, and co-author of Earthbag Building.com, the largest, most comprehensive website on building with earthbags, and Natural Building Blog, the most popular blog on earthbag and other natural building methods. Geiger has the largest portfolio of earthbag house plans anywhere – curently over 130 house designs – at Earthbag House Plans and Dream Green Homes.com.
This new PDF ebook is now available online from a high speed download site for $20. Click here for ordering information.
I am interested in the ebook describing your clay and plaster process…i want to use it for sculpting….
My ebook only covers the basics for covering earthbag walls. All you need is free materials on the Internet. Plus talk to potters for more tips and/or take a clay sculpture class.
I have no way to download…can I order a copy that’s not an e-book to be sent?
Can you download from a library or university? Almost certainly you can. If so, contact Zafra on the ordering page and she can help you out.
Does the book include 2 bedroom houses? Thanks!
Yes.
This is really interesting, definetely going to have to get the ebook.
The third part of the book consists of low cost, low tech building details like how to add a roof to a dome, attach a porch and so on. Some of these details have already been on our blog, but what I did was upgrade the drawings and refine the text. As with everything, I only used the best ideas. Lots of material didn’t make the cut.
Another Victory! Thank you Dr. Owen. You have delivered yet another useful book for those inclined to DIY and sustainability. Your works helps make the planet a better place. I know such a project (producing a book) is not easy–I know that if you did not “care”, you would not have done it.
Excellently done. Something for everyone who wants to assist our dear planet and have a wonderful home in which to live. THANKS. (and thanks also for the work you are gifting to assist Nepal)
The book took about 1,000-2,000 hours over the last 2 years or so. Glad to get it finished. One interesting feature is each of my 25 most popular designs in the book now has a 3D cutaway drawing so people can more easily visualize the interior and construction details.
Plans for Nepal are shaping up. Things are looking very good for training starting in September. There are lists of people who want to attend and numerous people helping to organize things.
Owen, this looks wonderful!
The next step for me is to find a resource to help me select solar, wind and water-collection tech that is suitable for a small house (and modest budget) and includes the latest & greatest developments. Everything from flexible solar cells to turbine trees — and more!
There is *so* much out there right now that it is very confusing — can you or anyone else here assist?
Thanks,
Gina
Just keep searching. There’s a lot to learn. Look for solutions that make sense in your area.
A big shout out to the proofreaders. About 10 people offered suggestions. They all get a free copy of the ebook. Email Zafra for details. Her email is on the ordering page.
The file size of this ebook is huge due to all of the images. So I’ve chosen to bypass the typical online shopping carts and go with a super fast download site. I downloaded the book in about 30 seconds with very ordinary Internet speed. This amazed me so much that now I’m working to put my earthbag building DVD and earthbag building guide on the same download site so people can get them more quickly.